From Goat to Garment

Oct 31

2 min read

Epic 2023. The then matriarch to the cashmere goat herd.

The most gratifying thing I have done thus far with my cashmere goats. Knitting a 100% cashmere cowl for myself. The whole process right here, from the goat all the way to the finished garment.

The Beginning

Little hands make for the best cashmere brushing help.

Every Spring it is goat brushing season. Where I get the pleasure to spend 1-on-1 time with my individual goats on the stand. Where I brush out their cashmere. This takes several times and sometimes weeks apart from each other. Spring is a busy time! But a true blessing of a time. A time that each goat gets to shine for all their hard work of growing that soft, fluffy, cashmere all year long.

Dehairing The Cashmere

Early mornings with coffee and dehairing cashmere.

Now begins the tedious task of seperating the guard hairs from the cashmere down. This process takes a great amount of time and patience. It is best down with lots of natural light, a cup of something warm, and a blanket.

Still at it in the early mornings with a warm cup of joe. Creating rolags.

Getting The Cashmere Ready To Spin - Creating Rolags

This is a process where the cashmere fibers are brushed so that all the fibers go in the same direction. Then knitting needles are used to pull and roll the fibers into little logs that are then ready to be spun into yarn.

Spinning, Plying, & a Finished Cashmere Skein

This process is the fun part! Time to spin up some gorgeous yarn. Though the fibers are short and it takes a bit of time to get the hang of spinning cashmere. It is an incredibly rewarding process!! Once all the rolags have been spin into a single strand on a bobbin. It can then be plyed, which means put multiple strands of yarn into one. Giving a sturdy and thicker yarn!

Then the plyed yarn can then be transfered to a swift. Which allows the creator to mesaure the legnth of the yarn so that they can figure out what project they can make. The yarn can then be turned into a beautuful skein for you to view!

The KnittedProject!

After I determined a project that I could create for myself I began knitting. I'm a beginner knitter so I wanted something easy that I could create. It was difficult to find a project that I like that was simple. So I decided to just knit in garter stitch a rectangle that I stitched together to finish this cowl. I feel honored to be able to do something like this. Take fiber from my own goats, take that fiber through the whole process to make yarn, and then knit a garment for myself!